LABOUR’S boost to Scottish budgets is an impressive start despite disappointing social security plans, the Scottish TUC said today as eyes turn to Holyrood.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves, in her autumn Budget, announced that the Scottish government would receive a funding boost of £1.5 billion this year and £3.4bn in the next as part of the “largest real-terms settlement since devolution.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar welcomed the plans as “transformative,” adding: “Decisions taken today by this Labour government mean that the Scottish government is receiving more per person in Scotland than in the rest of the UK.

“This is a Labour government delivering for Scotland’s workers and public services.”

But Scottish Green finance spokesman Ross Greer branded the budget timid and condemned the decision to freeze fuel duty while increasing England’s bus price cap: acts he argued would “encourage even more car journeys while the climate crisis spirals.”

While appreciating the extra cash flowing to Scotland, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn was less impressed with how it was raised, warning of “tax hikes that will hit millions of Scots in the pocket.”

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said: “Over 14 years of austerity from the Tory government cannot be undone in one budget, but potentially delivering a £3.4bn increase to the Scottish government coffers is an eye-opening and impressive start.”

But she branded social security plans on the two-child cap and winter fuel payment “a continuation rather than a reversal of Tory policies” that were “especially disappointing.”

Turning up the pressure on the SNP Scottish government, which will publish its own draft budget on December 4, Ms Foyer said: “The task now falls to the Scottish government to take the decisions needed to invest, through progressive taxation, into our communities and public services.

“The Westminster blame game is finished.”